unreal tournament 2004 tweak guide

7/30/2019 Unreal Tournament 2004 Tweak Guide

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Unreal Tournament 2004 Config GuideAuthor: Korus Ghazi

Last Modified: May 2004Compiled by DXTer

Introduction

The original Unreal Tournament, released in 1999 is one of my all-time favourite games. Iremember many, many hours of finger-stiffening, carpal tunnel-developing online death matches. Atthat time I truly thought it was the pinnacle of gaming heaven. Amazing graphics, great sound andalmost perfectly balanced game play, not to mention real human opponents to provide a genuinechallenge.

When Unreal Tournament 2003 was released I was anticipating even more online fun and mayhem.Sadly, UT2003 never enjoyed the same level of popularity as the original UT. Some credit the many

"Quake-like" changes the game underwent, others couldn't quite put their finger on it. Either way, itjust wasn't UT. Fortunately the Unreal Engine which powers the game has been used to great effectin other popular games like Raven Shield and America's Army.

Now Epic Games, Digital Extremes and Atari have worked long and hard to introduce UnrealTournament 2004. More than just an incremental upgrade from UT2003, it returns UnrealTournament to its roots. The character models, guns, music and maps all look and play like UT.Bigger, better and with a great new game play mode called Onslaught, UT2004 is the real thing.

Following up on my UT2003 Tweak Guide, I've written this guide to provide you with everything youneed to know to improve your UT2004 experience. As a compilation of detailed setting descriptions,recommendations, tweaks and links to important resources it guarantees something for every fan ofthis great game.

[Page 2] Essential Optimization

There is absolutely no point in going into any UT2004-specific settings and tweaks until we've firstcovered general system optimization. You can change any and every setting in UT2004 and it won'tmake a lick of difference to your problems or help improve your framerates if there is somethingsub-optimal about your general system settings. With that in mind I strongly urge you to take some

time and follow the advice below if you truly want UT2004, and indeed every other game you own,to run at its fastest and most trouble-free.

The place to start is my System Optimization Guide for Gamers. This guide provides detailedinformation on where to find the latest BIOS and drivers for your system, how to install them"cleanly", understanding more about the hardware components that you're running, whatoverclocking is, how to correctly test an overclocked system for stability and so forth. Everything isexplained from scratch, and technical jargon is kept to a minimum.

The next step is to examine my walkthrough guide to optimizing Windows: WinXP Tweaking: FromReformat to Relax. It has every known WindowsXP performance tweak and they're all tested to

work. It is absolutely vital to smooth, fast, stable gaming performance.

If you have time, make sure you check my second XP Guide, WinXP Tweaking: From Relax toRighteous, because it contains a wealth of information to complement the first one. Everything fromtroubleshooting common Windows error codes to cosmetic and convenience tweaks.


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Finally, if you run an ATi graphics card, I have written an ATi Catalyst installation Guide whichcovers the best method for ATi graphics driver installation and the most optimal configuration in thegraphics control panel.

The above information really will serve you well in the long run, not just in UT2004. If you don'toptimize your system and keep everything updated and maintained correctly you will keep runninginto "mysterious" problems time and time again. Do yourself a favor and spend an afternoon or twooptimizing your machine the right way with the guides above.

The next section goes into more detail about specific troubleshooting tips which address commonUT2004 performance issues.

[Page 3] Troubleshooting Tips

This section contains specific troubleshooting tips which address most of the common problemsexperienced by UT2004 players. Most of the tips below are actually drawn from one of my guidesmentioned in the Essential Optimization section. This is no coincidence, since most of the common

UT2004 problems are not game bugs, but specific sub-optimal system conditions which lead toproblems. UT2004 is a new and very system intensive game, and hence brings out instability andproblems in all but the most rock-solid of machines. Again, I can't stress the importance of takingthe time to go through the checklist of advice below:

Latest Patch: Make sure before you do any troubleshooting that you have installed the latest patchfor UT2004. This patch resolves many problems and removes the CD check protection system,which may resolve disk-related problems. You can read more about the patch in the Patches Maps& Mods section of this guide on Page 4.

Official Support: The first place to check for a solution to your specific issue is the UT2004 OfficialSupport Forum. There are several common problems listed, with suggested solutions you can try.This is also where you can request official Technical Support if you're really struggling. Also makesure you read the Readme.int.txt file found in your \UT2004\Help directory for more handytroubleshooting tips straight from the game's developers.

Virus Scan: Do a full scan of all your files using a virus scanner such as Norton's Antivirus, a trojancleaner such as The Cleaner, and a spyware cleaner such as Ad-aware. Viruses and trojans cancause unexplained behavior like forced disconnection from the net, ping spikes or crashing ofUT2004 to the desktop while loading. Note if you are crashing to the desktop while loading and it'snot a virus, try the official solution here.

Background Programs: Disable all background applications, especially virus, trojan and spywarescanners and messaging utilities. These applications can and do use up valuable CPU resources,take up precious RAM, and raise ping, but far more importantly they interfere with read/writes toyour hard drive effectively slowing it down and causing more in-game freezes and increasing loadtimes. Full instructions on how to identify your startup programs and services and how to correctlydisable unnecessary ones are on this page of my WinXP Tweak Guide.

Overclocking: The Unreal Engine is extremely sensitive to overclocking. If you've overclocked anycomponent(s) on your system, set everything back to the default settings and try running the game.If you don't experience the same problems at default then your overclock is the primary culprit. In

particular, read through this page of my System Optimization Guide for tools and instructions onhow to correctly stress-test an overclocked system and determine which components are beingpushed too far. Even if every other game and program you run works just fine at your currentoverclock, UT2004 is likely to want even more stability. Each game has different tolerances basedon the way it stresses different components in your system, and UT2004 is about as overclocking-unfriendly as you can get.


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CPU Speed: UT2004 is extremely CPU hungry, so if you have a high-end graphics card (e.g.Radeon 9800 Pro) but a lower powered CPU (e.g. P4 1.6Ghz), or vice versa, then you will find thatthis will hold back your performance significantly. Put simply the Unreal Engine requires both CPUand rendering power. The only solution to this problem is an upgrade.

RAM & Virtual Memory: UT2004 is also extremely memory hungry. This is evident from the longloading times and in-game loading hitches and freezes some people are experiencing. Aside from

buying more RAM (1GB or more is ideal), one thing you should do to address this problem is tooptimize your Virtual Memory settings following the step-by-step instructions on this page of myWinXP Tweak Guide, and also use Cacheman as detailed on this page of my WinXP Tweak Guide.Combined with the tweaks covered later in this guide (such as the Preload All Player Skins setting),this should help resolve most of your problems. Note that there will still be some loading pauses,but they should be less severe.

Hard Drive Speed: UT2004 takes up over 5.2GB of game information on your hard drive, and quiteobviously a lot of that will need to be loaded up at some point. On a modern operating system likeWindowsXP, memory management is quite good, however it can't work miracles. The wholeprocess of continually loading information from your hard drive into RAM and back onto the drive is

dependent on both the speed of your actual hard drive, and your Windows File Cache and MemoryManagement settings. You can optimize your Windows memory management settings as coveredin the tips above, but if you have low RAM (i.e. 512MB or less) and/or a slow hard drive then expecta lot more hard disk activity and hence longer loading times and in-game stuttering and freezes asUT2004 data loads into and out of RAM.Defragging: Make sure that after you've installed UT2004 you run through the system maintenanceprocedures detailed on this page of my WinXP Tweak Guide. In particular it is vital that you run theWindows Defragmentation utility after installing such a massive game as UT2004. Defraggingensures that the game's files are all on the same place on your hard drive, greatly reducing loadingpauses/freezes and loading times.

General Protection Faults: If you are continually crashing to desktop with a General Protection Faultthen this is directly related to the memory subset on your system. That means either the L2 Cacheon your CPU, your RAM (including Virtual Memory), or a background program in memory arehaving problems. The solutions are covered in the tips above that is, disable all unnecessarybackground programs, make sure your system is not highly overclocked, and optimize your VirtualMemory settings.

Antialiasing/Anisotropic: If you have mysteriously low frames per second (FPS) despite beingcertain that your hardware is capable of more, then one place to check would be your Antialiasingand Anisotropic Filtering settings. These are explained in detail in my Simple Antialiasing andAnisotropic Guide. Even 2x Antialiasing for example can turn UT2004 from playably smooth (e.g.30+ fps) to unplayable (e.g. 18 fps) depending on your hardware and in-game settings. Formaximum framerates set both AA and AF to 0x or "Application Controlled".

That's just a basic rundown of troubleshooting tips. Read the remainder of this guide for morespecific setting and tweak information, and of course although I've said it a dozen times by now (youwant to kill me, right?) you really do need to go through my various tweak guides to make fullycertain you've covered all your bases. These guides have been around for quite a while and aretried and tested by literally tens of thousands of readers.

[Page 4] Official Patches and Bonus Packs

Epic and Digital Extremes have a history of providing some very cool content and upgrades for theUnreal Tournament series of games for absolutely nothing, nix, nada. These upgrades are mostcommonly released in two forms: Official patches and Bonus Packs. Patches usually contain bugfixes, performance improvements and game refinements designed to address any major issues


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identified by the UT community. Bonus packs are exactly that a bonus downloadable packagewith new maps, new skins, new voices and new game play modes.

Official Patch

A new patch has been released for the game and brings it up to version 3204. The patch is a must-install, and you can download it from a variety of places, including from Atari, or BeyondUnreal orFileshack. To install the patch simply double-click on the .exe file and it will update your UT2004

automatically.

The patch contains a great many bug fixes and minor game changes to make UT2004 even better,but if you want to see the full list of changes for yourself, after installing the patch go to your\UT2004\Help\ directory and read the ReadMePatch.int.txt file for all the details. The mostsignificant changes include the addition of an official benchmark for UT2004, the inclusion of theDirectX9 renderer, the removal of the CD check (i.e. a built-in No-CD) and the fixing of severalmemory leaks and precaching optimization which should mean faster loadup times and less in-game pauses for most people.

Bonus Packs

The first small Onslaught Bonus Pack has been released, containing two new Onslaught mapswhich can be downloaded here or here. I have a strong hunch given UT2004's popularity that you'llsee more Bonus Packs sooner rather than later. In any case, the best place to keep an eye out forthese goodies is the Official UT2004 Website and of course make sure you come back often to thisguide for updates on the impact of any changes.

Since UT2004 comes with the easy-to-use UnrealEd game editor, you don't have to wait for OfficialPatches or Bonus Packs to be released before you try new content for UT2004. Just go to anUnreal Tournament community site (See the Credits & Links section below), or places like theFilePlanet UT2004 section to download one of several free user-made maps or modifications

("mods") for UT2004. If diving into using UnrealEd takes your fancy, then a tutorial such as one ofthose listed here might be what you need. If you're fortunate enough to have the DVD edition ofUT2004, it comes with a second DVD which has tutorials on using UnrealEd in full step-by-stepDVD-quality detail.

A group of people who have put UnrealEd to good use are the folks who have put together twoCommunity Bonus Pack over at PlanetUnreal. The community-developed packs have 20 new maps,4 new characters and a new mod type each for you to enjoy, all for free. The packs are 195MBdownload each, but well worth it.

Or perhaps you can try the acclaimed Red Orchestra total conversion for UT2004. This free modcompletely converts UT2004 into a classy WWII shooter, where you play a soldier on the Easternfront. It features excellent environments, accurate weaponry and physics and great sounds. It's ahuge download (410MB) but effectively gives you hours and hours more game play with UT2004 ina totally different genre. Give it a try!

No-CD Cracks

Important Update: As of the 3204 Patch, UT2004 no longer checks for the presence of your gameCD in the drive. That effectively means the game now has a "built-in" No-CD patch, which means

you don't need to download and install any other No-CD patches, executables or cracks fromanywhere else.

I've made the decision not to provide any information on where to obtain, and how to install No-CDcracks in this guide. This is purely for legal reasons, as in a recent Halo Tweak Guide I initiallyincluded No-CD details but then received a friendly but firm email from the President of Bungie


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Software thanking me for the guide and asking me to remove the No-CD information. Copyrightlaws differ in various countries, but essentially you can't modify executable files or bypass copyprotection without the author's permission. Morally I support the use of No-CDs, but legally, I amgoing to take the safe route, especially since TweakGuides.com is a new site and I don't want tojeopardize its existence.

What I can tell you is that No-CDs and Virtual Images don't improve game performance for UT2004.They reduce the initial loading time, since the CD/DVD doesn't have to spin up to be checked prior

to starting up the game, but the copy protection used on UT2004 isn't the kind that will affectframerates. In the past, Epic/DE have recognised the annoyance caused by CD/DVD-checking copyprotection systems on Unreal Tournament games and have eventually released a patch whichremoves the CD/DVD check. Once the initial period in which sales are at their peak is over, expectto see such a patch for UT2004.Cheats and Hacks

Just a quick note that any modifications to game files, or use of scripts or utilities which give playersan unfair advantage online (i.e. cheats/hacks) are simply not on. Epic/DE and Atari have made itclear in a recent announcement that the use of cheats is against the End User License Agreementyou explicitly agreed to when installing UT2004, and if you're discovered cheating your unique CD

Key will be banned from all servers, and you will be legally required to fully uninstall the game. Themoral of the tale of course is don't cheat, no matter how tempting or fun it may seem. It's lame, it'spointless and now it's illegal. Stop it, or you'll go blind.

The next section describes all the UT2004 in-game settings, and their impact on performance.

[Page 5] In-Game Settings

In this section we go through all the UT2004 settings which can be accessed within the game. TheAdvanced Tweaking section will cover the settings which are accessible outside the game in theUT2004.ini and User.ini files.

The precise performance impact of a setting will depend on the particular hardware combinationyou are running. Also keep in mind that everyone has different performance vs image qualitypreferences, so I can't give hard and fast settings rules for everyone to follow.

To access the in-game settings, start up UT2004 and click on the Settings option on the mainmenu. You can also access settings during a game by pressing ESC, clicking on the Game buttonat the top of the screen, then the Settings button at the bottom. There are 7 settings screens. Eachscreen and its associated settings are covered in detail below:

Display

Resolution: This setting determines how many pixels (the individual dots which make up a computerimage) are displayed on the screen. A resolution of 800x600 implies 800 pixels wide by 600 pixelshigh on your monitor. Obviously the higher the resolution (the more pixels), the more detailed andclearer the game image, but it takes more graphics card and CPU power and hence you will seeless Frames Per Second (FPS). The highest resolution available in this list of resolutions is limitedto what your graphics card and monitor are actually capable of rendering (drawing on screen). Theresolution alone will have the biggest impact on your framerate, along with texture settings.

Color Depth: This determines how many different colors can be displayed on screen. The twooptions are 16-bit and 32-bit, with 32-bit only shown if your graphics card supports it. 32-bit colorlooks the nicest, with 16-bit color showing more color "banding" that is, the gradation betweencolors is more apparent. 32-bit color also resolves a lot of problems with flickering and missingtextures, especially in OpenGL mode. However 32-bit color requires a bit more power than 16-bit,so if you need more FPS, switch to 16-bit.


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Full Screen: Tick this option to run UT2004 in full screen mode, for the least likelihood of errors orcrashes. If unticked, UT2004 will run in a window on your Windows desktop and this may causeproblems.

Gamma, Brightness, Contrast: These three settings affect how bright/dark and crisp/soft your imagelooks. Set these to taste, using the picture provided in the Gamma Test window below thesesettings as a guide to how it will impact on the in-game images. It really depends on your monitor'sbrightness/contrast settings as well. For reference, my monitor's Brightness is 70% and Contrast

100%, while my UT2004 settings are: Gamma of 0.90, Brightness of 0.70, and Contrast of 0.70.

Texture Detail: This determines how detailed the in-game textures (the images that cover thesurface of every 3D object) will look. The options range from Lowest to Highest. The higher thesetting, the crisper and more detailed the textures around you will look. Higher texture settingsprimarily impact on loading times and loading pauses in-game, and less on FPS. The more VideoRAM your graphics card has (ideally 128MB or more), and the more system RAM you have (ideally512MB or more) the less stuttering and freezing you will get with higher texture settings, as theseare loaded into and out of RAM from your hard drive.

Character Detail: Similar to the Texture Detail setting above, from Lowest to Highest this determines

how detailed the textures on all the characters look. The higher the setting combined with thenumber of players in a match determines the performance impact, particularly on loading times.

World Detail: Options are Low, Normal and High. The higher this setting the richer yoursurroundings, as more optional 3D objects are loaded onto the landscape, but the higher thecomputing power required (and hence the lower your FPS) especially on levels where you can seefurther and/or there are more optional objects to see. If you have a slower graphics card and/orCPU lower this setting to improve your FPS.

Physics Detail: Options are Low, Normal and High. This setting changes the level of detail for thesimulation of physics in the UT2004 gaming world. The higher the setting the more CPU effort

required to crunch the numbers to show more realistic effects ranging from the basic "ragdoll"effects through to effects such as water ripples. I would recommend that the slower your CPU (i.ethe closer to the 1GHz minimum spec), the lower your Physics setting, as this can really affect yourFPS.

Dynamic Mesh LOD: This setting controls the degree to which the Level of Detail (LOD) on DynamicMesh objects (i.e. animated objects like characters and vehicles) is affected by distance. The higherthis setting, the less quickly the level of detail (number of polygons) on such objects is removed asthey move into the distance. Put another way, the higher the setting, the better the visual quality butthe greater the impact on your FPS depending on how many dynamic objects are on screen. Asetting of Normal is recommended for most people.

Decal Stay: This setting, if the Decal option is ticked (and Projectors is also ticked), will determinehow long decals (scorch marks and the like) will remain on surfaces. The three settings are Low,Normal and High, and unless you are a stickler for detail, Normal or even Low should be just fine.Setting it to High may negatively impact your FPS, especially with lots of weapons fire on screen.

Character Shadows: This setting determines the type of shadows cast by animated characters, andcan have a major impact on performance. When set to None, characters do not cast a shadow. Thisprovides the fastest performance. When set to Blob, characters cast a generic, low detailed 'blob-like' shadow. This setting is recommended for most people. Setting Character Shadows to Full

provides full-detailed shadows but can impact FPS quite noticeable, especially when there aremany characters onscreen.

Decals: Decals are the dynamic marks left on surfaces by weapons fire, explosions and the like.Ticking this option turns them on to improve the realism of the game, but may affect FPS negatively,


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especially on levels where there are lots of players firing lots of weapons. I recommend leavingDecals on unless you're really struggling for FPS.

Dynamic Lighting: Ticking this option allows the various lights in the game to react realistically withobjects, shining at different angles off weapons, characters and walls based on the light's position.This makes for great effects but can decrease your framerate, so untick it if you need more FPS.

Detail Textures: Adds a level of fine detail or "grain" to certain textures (such as pitted or brushed

metallic surfaces) when examined close up. However this can reduce your FPS and use up moreRAM, so untick it if you need better performance.

Coronas: A corona is the halo of glare given off from light sources, such as lamps and shock-comboexplosions. Unticking this option will give you slightly more FPS, especially if you also haveDynamic Lighting ticked.

Trilinear Filtering: This rendering method makes the graphics and colors seem smoother andcleaner, but can reduce performance noticeably if you have an old (e.g GeForce2) video card. Mostnewer systems should notice little if any performance drop from having this enabled. If you'reunsure about this setting, or are struggling for performance then leave it unticked.

Projectors: Projectors covers a range of images projected onto textures, such as shadows fromcharacters and objects (like tree shadows) and Decals (see above). The noticeable effects ofunticking this option include removal of such shadows and decals, even if Character Shadows areenabled and the Decals option is ticked. Only untick Projectors if you really need a few extra FPS,as it makes things look fairly unrealistic.

Foliage: As the setting name suggests, ticking this option enables grass and other decorativefoliage. Unticking it will improve your FPS by reducing foliage details, particularly on maps like ONS-Primeval which have a lot of trees and grassland.

Weather Effects: Ticking this option enables the various weather effects found on several maps, likeraindrops, lightning, etc. Unticking this option will improve FPS on such maps by reducing the loadon your CPU and graphics card.

Fog Distance: Using the slider, a value range between 0.00 and 1.00 can be set. Lower valuesreduce visible distance (increasing the 'fog') and hence reduce the number of objects renderedonscreen, improving performance. Experiment with various values to determine your ownperformance vs image quality preference.

In-Game settings are continued on the next page

[Page 6] In-Game Settings (Pt. 2)

Audio

Music Volume, Effects Volume, Announcer Volume: These independently determine the volume ofthe background music, general effects like character voices, weapons fire and explosions, and theAnnouncer's voice volume respectively. Adjust to taste, no performance impact.

Audio Mode: The available options for this setting are covered below:

[Safe Mode] - This option is only provided for those having sound problems with other soundmodes. If your sound problems are resolved by switching to Safe Mode, then chances are you needto update or reinstall your sound card driver, or address another general system issue (See theEssential Optimization section above, and my System Optimization Guide).


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[3D Audio] - This is the most basic audio in UT2004, and uses your CPU to process the sound. It'sactually quite acceptable, and does provide good 3D audio. If you have a sound card or decentonboard audio, you can use that instead to provide better quality audio. However software audio willprovide the best framerate performance.

[H/W 3D Audio] - If you have a sound card, this option will make use of your sound card's hardwarecapabilities to extend the audio experience. It sounds better than Software 3D, but may reduce yourFPS slightly due to extra processing.

[H/W 3D Audio + EAX] If you have a sound card capable of running Creative Lab's EAX 3.0(Environmental Audio), such as the SoundBlaster Audigy series, then you can enable this option.EAX adds special effects to the sound and gives you advantages such as being able to determinewith greater accuracy where people are (true positional), and being underwater or behind walls willsound more realistic (occlusion culling). However with this option enabled, you may notice a drop inFPS. Note that you may also have to update your sound card's drivers to get correct 3D audio withEAX on UT2004.

Play Voices: Here you can choose which type of character voices you hear. The options are Allwhich plays everything, No Auto Taunts which only allows taunts which you or opponents manually

select to be heard, No Taunts which blocks all taunting voices, and None which removes allcharacter voices, including taunts and screams/grunts. Has no noticeable effect on performance.

Low Sound Detail: If ticked this changes the sampling rate of the sound, in effect lowering itsquality. This might improve general performance, but it's not recommended for most people unlessyou are really struggling for extra FPS.

Mature Taunts: If ticked, will allow the more "mature" taunts to be heard in-game. If you are a parentand don't want your kids hearing "Holy Sh*t!" in the middle of a UT2004 match, untick this option,otherwise the taunts are not that shocking for most. Has no effect on performance.

System Driver: This option determines whether UT2004 uses the game's generic OpenAL sounddriver, or an OpenAL driver specific to your sound card. If this setting is ticked, the game will use thedefault UT2004 driver (which seems counter-intuitive). However if you check in your\Windows\System32 directory and find an OPENAL32.DLL file, then unticking this option will useyour sound card-specific driver. This may resolve any audio problems you are having, and it willimprove your performance and audio quality. I recommend unticking this option if you haveOPENAL32.DLL in your \Windows\System32\ directory.

Auto Taunt: Your character will automatically say a random taunt when he kills an opponent or withspecial moves/events. Usually this annoys other players after a while, so I recommend you leave itunticked. If you need to taunt, bind specific taunts to a key, or use the speech key. Has no effect onperformance.

Reverse Stereo: Reverses the left and right audio channels. Leave unticked unless you really wantyour left speaker to put out sounds coming from your character's right and vice versa. Has no effecton performance.

Message Beep: If ticked, produces a small beep whenever a text message is sent by any players inthe game. Has no effect on performance.

Announcements: The settings are None, Minimal and All. Some people may get annoyed with the

somewhat obvious things the in-game announcer will say, so this setting allows you to determinethe frequency of announcements. Minimal is recommended so you can hear the importantannouncements like time left in the match and whose flag has been captured. Remember thatimportant announcements will also be shown as text on screen, so setting this option to None won'tput you at a playing disadvantage. Has no effect on performance.


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Status Announcer: Select which announcer type you want to provide you with Status updates. Thechoice is personal taste, and has no impact on performance.

Reward Announcer: Select which announcer type you want to announce the various rewards (suchas "Monster Kill!"). The choice is personal taste, and has no impact on performance.

Text To Speech: The various options under this section relate to the new UT2004 ability to translate

text message to synthesized audible speech (voiced by Stephen Hawking), as well as the built-invoice chat system. Note that you can adjust the voice used for Text-to-speech by going to yourWindows Control Panel and choosing the Speech option. Disabling Text-to-speech can give anoticeable performance improvement.

[Enable in Game] Ticking this option enables the text-to-speech functionality during game play inUT2004. It will have some performance impact in that extra CPU processing is required, but it maynot be significant depending on your CPU's speed. Unselect all the text-to-speech options if they'renot to your taste and you want extra game performance.

[Enable in IRC] Enables the text-to-speech functionality in Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

[Team Messages Only] Ticking this option will force text-to-speech to only operate for messagessent by teammates in team-based game modes.

[Voice Chat] Ticking this option enables the ability to talk to other players online via a microphone.Enabling voice chat can have an impact on your ping, as voice data is transferred over your internetconnection. Untick this option (and subsequent ones below) if you don't use voice chat to conservebandwidth and maintain the lowest possible ping. See the Voice Chat Options below for moredetails.

[Voice Chat Options] Click the Configure button here, and on the next screen you can adjust

various options:

- Voice Chat Volume: Adjust the volume at which you hear other voices over the chat link. Noperformance impact.

- Autojoin Public Channel: If selected, you will automatically join the Public channel each time youjoin a server, allowing you to chat to all players on the server. Untick this option if you don't usevoice chat and want to conserve bandwidth and/or if you don't want to automatically join the Publicchannel.

- Autojoin Local Channel: If selected (and enabled on the server) you will automatically join theLocal channel each time you join a server. Every time you speak, the broadcast will come from youronline character's current location. Those further away from you will hear you less clearly than thosewho are close. Untick this option if you don't use voice chat and want to conserve bandwidth and/orif you don't want to automatically join the Local channel.

- Autojoin Team Channel: If selected, you will automatically join the Team channel each time youjoin a server with a team-based map. Any voice broadcasts you make on this channel will only beheard by team members, and not by the opposing team. Untick this option if you don't use voicechat and want to conserve bandwidth and/or if you don't want to automatically join the Teamchannel.

- Auto Select Active Channel: If selected, you will automatically select the default channel on theserver. If you want to specify a particular channel yourself, enter the name in the Default ChannelServer box below this setting, or leave it blank to join the server's default channel. Once again,untick this setting if you don't use voice chat and want to conserve bandwidth and/or you don't wantto set a particular channel.


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- Chat Password: Every time you join a server, a personal Chat Room is created for you, whichothers can join to privately chat. If you want to set a password on this channel, enter one in this boxto prevent unwanted access.

- Internet Quality: This setting determines the amount of bandwidth on your internet connectionused to transmit and receive audio broadcasts. This in turn affects the voice audio quality. The LessBandwidth setting uses less bandwidth, but this results in lower quality voice audio. The BetterQuality setting sacrifices more bandwidth to give higher quality voice audio. Select Less Bandwidth

if you have a slower internet connection such as 56K modem or 128kpbs DSL, or if you simply wantto conserve bandwidth due to ping spikes/lag.

- LAN Quality: Same as Internet Quality above, except affects voice audio when connected to othermachines on a LAN configuration. Since most LAN connections are fast, Better Quality is thepreferred setting here.

In-Game settings continue on the next page.


3D View: This panel shows your currently selected character appearance when playing online andoffline. You can rotate the 3D character model by click on it and moving your mouse right or left.You can switch between 2D and 3D view by clicking the Portrait button. Has no impact onperformance.

Change Character: Click this button to scroll through a list of available characters to select from.None of the characters are faster or more agile than each other, these are simply different "skins"which will represent what you look like to others when you play online. Choose one which reflectsyour online personality and playing style. You can sort by race, or view them All. Note somecharacter boxes will have "?" in them to indicate a unique character type which is opened upthrough completion of the single player campaign (or by using the tweak in the Advanced Tweakingsection on Page 9).

Name: Select your character name, limited to 16 characters in the box.

Voice Type: You can set the type of voice your character uses online when making taunts orannouncements/orders to other players. Has no impact on performance.

Default FOV: This setting changes your Field Of View (FOV), that is how much of your surroundingsyou can see at once. The default is 90, however you can increase this value, with higher valuesgiving you more of a "fish eye" view of the world. Changing this setting is more for the hardcoreplayers who want the advantage of seeing more of their surroundings and hence reacting faster topeople approaching from their sides. This setting can also be changed in-game using the FOVconsole command (See Console Commands section). The wider the FOV from default, the moredetails are visible onscreen and hence the greater the impact on your FPS.

Preferred Team: For team games like Team Deathmatch or Onslaught, and on evenly balancedservers, this will determine whether you start on blue or red. Has no impact on performance.

Weapon Hand: Select whether your weapon is visible or not in first person view (i.e only to you), orwhether you hold it in your character's right hand, left hand, or centered. Doesn't affect youraccuracy, and your weapon will still be visible to others regardless of this setting. Invisible weaponrymay improve your graphics performance slightly due to not rendering a large, highly detailedweapon on your screen, but for the most part this setting is personal preference.


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Small Weapons: If selected, this reduces the size of the weaponry you see in the game. Thenostalgic among us select this option to take us back to the days of the original Unreal Tournament.This is based on your personal preference, and has no performance impact.

Game

Weapon Bob: Ticking this option makes your movements seem a bit more realistic the weaponyou're holding will bob up and down slightly as you run. You may want to untick it to maintain a

smoother view, with no performance impact either way.

Gore Level: This setting determines how much blood and guts (and partial body pieces) go flyingaround during a game. Selecting No Gore turns off all gore, but is not recommended as it's againstthe UT spirit of unbridled carnage. Reduced Gore removes some of the more gratuitous gore, whileFull Gore is the way UT is really meant to be played! Set to your personal taste, has no impact onperformance.

Dodging: Ticking this option will allow you to perform the special dodge moves (See the SpecialMoves section below). If you double tap a movement key quickly your character performs a rapid"dodge" in that direction. The only reason you may want to untick this option (as it has no effect on

FPS) is that some people accidentally cause a dodge while rapidly moving around and find itannoying or off-putting.

Auto Aim: This option will help you aim at targets (other characters) better, but if ticked will onlywork in the offline Single Player matches. It has no performance impact, and will not work in onlinegames.

Screen Flashes: Ticking this option allows your screen to briefly flash as you take damage fromweapons. It can be a useful reminder of the "pain" your character is experiencing, but may bothersome people. Has no effect on fps, so set to taste.

High Beacon Trajectory: Ticking this option will mean that whenever you use the Translocator, it willshoot the beacon disc out at a high angled trajectory, in classic UT-style, as opposed to a flattertrajectory. Has no impact on performance.

Switch On Pickup: With this setting ticked, as you pick up different weapons during a game, if youractive weapon has a lower priority (based on Weapon Priorities you set see below) than the oneyou've just picked up, you will automatically switch to the higher priority weapon. After a while youmay decide it is simply easier to switch off this option and manually select the best weapon basedon the circumstances. Has no impact on performance.

Landing Viewshake: With this setting ticked, whenever you land from a height your view will shakeslightly to represent the jarring your character has received. Switching this off may suit most people.Has no impact on performance.

Connection: Choose the type of internet connection you have available on your machine. Yourconnection will determine how "laggy" your online experience will be. When you see a list ofservers, a setting called Ping will be displayed in the server details. The lower this number, the lessdelay in milliseconds (ms) there will be between any action you perform in UT2004 (such as firing agun) and the actual impact it has on the online world. For example, with a ping of 500, it would take250ms (or a quarter of a second) for a bullet I fire from my gun to actually register as a hit on the

target, and another 250ms for me to see that hit. In that time the target may well have moved threeinches to the left on the screen. This is known as lag, and is a part of all online action games tosome extent.


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To fine-tune your network connection speed in UT2004 see the Advanced Tweaking section below.Optimal connection speed helps reduce lag and ping variations, particularly for slower connectionssuch as Dialup Modems.

Dynamic Netspeed: This is a new option which if selected allows UT2004 to dynamically alter yourNetspeed setting (see Advanced Tweaking and Console Commands sections below) to maintainoptimal ping. However I have found that if enabled this can cause variations in your ping which canbe difficult to adjust to during a game. I highly recommend unticking this option as it can lead to

more lag and ping variability.

Track Stats: Just like a real sporting tournament, UT2004 provides a means of recording your gamestatistics such as overall online ranking, kills, deaths, time spent playing etc. To make sure that onlyyou can record this information for your character, the game has username and password fieldswhich you must fill out to protect your stats. If you tick the Track Stats option, every time you play agame on a server with statistics enabled, relevant statistics will be recorded, and can be viewed byclicking the View Stats button. Note that some servers require that this option to be ticked beforeyou can join, so if you can't seem to connect to a particular server, tick this option and try again.

Speech Recognition: This is a new UT2004 feature, which if ticked basically uses voice recognition

to translate your spoken commands into actual commands given to bots on your team (if any are inthe current game). Enabling this option will impact on your performance, so unless you absolutelywant this feature turn it off for a noticeable performance improvement.

Preload All Player Skins: When this setting is ticked, UT2004 will attempt to load up all player skinsinto memory while loading up maps. It does so in an attempt to reduce in-game loading pauseswhich can occur every time you see a new character (and hence their skin is suddenly needed).However this feature is causing a lot of problems for those with 512MB or less of RAM. It is highlyrecommended you disable this feature unless you have 1GB of RAM or more, and you will see anoticeable improvement in loading times and in-game freezes. With this setting disabled you mayhowever notice a lot more small loading hitches/pauses during the game, particularly in the first few

minutes as player skins are loaded up "on the fly". See the Troubleshooting Tips section for moretips on reducing loading pauses and loading times, as well as the Advanced Tweaking section.

The next section finishes off the In-Game settings


Aside from Reduce Mouse Lag, none of the settings below have any impact on performance andare all purely based on personal preference. Hence no performance impact commentary is notedagainst them.

Configure Controls: This section is fairly self-explanatory. Click on the key assignments you want tochange in the Key1 column and type in the new key you wish to use. The default control settingsare actually very good, so not much should need to be changed.

Speech Binder: This section allows you to assign taunts to specific keys, so you won't have to pressseveral keys to access individual taunts. This can also be done through the User.ini file (SeeAdvanced Tweaking section), but doing it here is much more convenient and is recommended.

Auto Slope: Ticking this option means that whenever your character runs up (or down) a slopedsurface, the view will automatically tilt to be level with the surface.

Invert Mouse: Ticking this setting will mean that pushing your mouse forward will make you lookdown, and pulling your mouse backward will make your character's view tilt upward.


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Mouse Smoothing: As the name implies, ticking this setting will mean your mouse movements willresult in smoother movement on screen. Ticking this option will not affect your framerate (whereasReduce Mouse Lag will), so tick it unless it gives you problems.

Reduce Mouse Lag: If you have issues with your mouse "lagging" on screen, then ticking this optionwill help resolve them. Unfortunately it will also reduce your performance to a fair extent, so if youhave no mouse lag problems leave it unticked for an increase in FPS. Most of the time "mouse lag"problems are actually caused by low FPS (and/or extremely high ping) in any case, so look to

lowering some of your other settings first and see if that improves your mouse lag. If nothing elseworks you may have to enable this setting.

Enable Joystick: Fairly obviously, if you have a joystick connected and wish to use it with UT2004,you'll need to tick this option, otherwise leave it unticked.

Mouse Sensitivity (Game): The higher the number, the more sensitive your character's movementswill be to mouse movements. This setting only applies to the actual game movements and notmoving the mouse around the user interface. There is no "correct" setting - it all depends on yourmouse, the surface it's on, your general Windows mouse speed and your personal preference.

Mouse Sensitivity (Menus): Just like the above option, the higher the number, the more quickly yourcursor will move in response to a mouse movement in the user interface (menus, settings screens,etc.).

Mouse Smoothing Strength: This setting lets you change the extent to which mouse smoothingoccurs on your movements (If Mouse Smoothing is ticked). I experimented with various values butdidn't notice any real difference on my optical mouse. If you are experiencing problems with yourmouse smoothness, try varying values.

Mouse Accel. Threshold: This value affects the acceleration of your mouse and can increase or

decrease mouse precision. The higher the setting, the more movement of the mouse is neededbefore mouse acceleration kicks in. That means the higher the value, the more accuracy you'll havewith the crosshairs, but your mouse will feel slightly slower for smaller movements.

Dodge Double-Click Time: With Dodging enabled (See the Game section above) this settingcontrols the length of time in seconds during which a double-click of a keyboard movement key isregistered as a dodge. That is, with dodging enabled, and at the default setting, if you press A(default move left key) twice within 0.25 seconds then it will register a dodge to the left. Highervalues mean more time during which two presses of a key will register as a dodge. I personallyrecommend a setting of 0.40.

TouchSense Force Feedback: If your mouse supports Force Feedback then you can tick any or allof the four feedback areas to give you more of a "connected feel" to your environment. Using thisoption shouldn't affect framerate noticeably, and of course if your hardware doesn't support thisfeature, untick these options.

Weapons

Weapon Priorities: Lists the available weapons in UT2004 in order of priority, from highest throughto lowest. The priority list only has an effect on game play if you have Switch On Pickup ticked (Seeabove). You can change the weapon priority order by clicking on a weapon name, then selecting

either the up arrow to the right of this panel (Raise Priority) or the down arrow (Lower Priority).Rearrange the list until you have your favourite weapons near the top and the weaker/less preferredweapons at the bottom. If you want to set the priority list back to the default priorities when you firstran the game, click the Defaults button on the bottom right of the screen. When you click on eachweapon you also get the same weapon description as is in the manual displayed in the box beneaththe weapon's picture.


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Swap Fire Mode: Highlighting a weapon in the Weapon Priorities list and ticking this option will swapthat weapon's Primary and Secondary firing modes. For example, if you highlight the Shock Rifleand tick this option, left-clicking your mouse will now shoot an energy ball, and right-clicking it willshoot the beam (the opposite of the Shock's default).

Classic Model: When highlighting certain weapons in the Weapon Priorities list, you will see theClassic Model option become available on the right of the screen. If selected, you will see a change

in the 3D weapon picture to reflect the fact that you will now see these weapons as the "classic"UT2003-style model. This has no impact on the weapon's abilities, only the model which portrays it.

Custom Weapon Crosshair: If selected, this option will allow the use of a separate crosshair style foreach different weapon. You can then highlight each weapon and use the settings below to adjustthe style, color, opacity (transparentness) and scale (size) of each the crosshair. If this option isunselected, a single crosshair, as specified by these settings, will be used for all weapons yourcharacter wields.

HUD

The HUD is the Heads Up Display, the display around the edges of your screen which show yourhealth, ammunition etc.

Hide HUD: Ticking this option completely removes the HUD. The information displayed on the HUDis very important and at least some of it is best left showing. Use the options below to select whichparts you wish to show.

Show Enemy Names: This option is ticked by default, so that putting your crosshair on an enemywill show their name beneath the crosshair.

Weapon Bar: Ticking this will show the weapon bar at the bottom of the screen.

Show Weapon Info: Ticking this will show the current weapon you've equipped and how muchammo it has.

Show Personal Info: Ticking this will show your current health and armor.

Show Score: Ticking this will show your ranking or team's score in the current game.

Show Portraits: Ticking this will allow a briefly displayed small portrait of any character who sayssomething important (like an order) during the game in the mid-left of the screen.

Show VoIP Portraits: Same as Show Portraits above, except is triggered by Voice Chat.

No Console Death Messages: As the name implies, turns off the reporting of characters' deaths inthe console area.

Max Chat Count: The number you enter in this box determines how many in-game chat messageswill be displayed at one time on the screen (maximum 8).

Chat Font Size: The number in this box will determine the size of the font (how big the text will be)

for in-game chat messages (maximum 8).

Message Font Size: Similar to Chat Font Size, this number will determine how big the in-gamemessages (other than chat) will be (maximum 4).


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HUD Scaling: Determines how big the HUD items are on the screen, starting at 100% (default size)to a minimum of 50% of default size.

HUD Opacity: Determines how transparent the HUD items are, down to 50% transparent.

Custom HUD Color: If you tick this option, you can choose a unique HUD color.

Configure: The configure button at the bottom left allows you to configure the HUD items specific to

the Onslaught and Assault game play modes. Click on configure to adjust the various HUD settingsfor these game modes, such as the size, transparency and viewable items.

Phew! That brings us to the end of all the options available for configuration in the in-game settings.Once you get these adjusted to suit your personal taste and performance vs image qualitypreferences, go to the next section for some Advanced Tweaking.

[Page 9] Advanced Tweaking

While the in-game settings for UT2004 cover almost all of your customisation needs, this wouldn'tbe a TweakGuides.com tweak guide if we didn't go a lot further than that. As most people know,

games based on the Unreal Engine can be tweaked by editing the game settings in the initialisation(.ini) files. UT2004 follows that tradition by having a lot of tweakability if you know where to look inthe .ini file and what each tweak actually does.

In this section of the guide we examine the two main .ini files which hold all the major UT2004settings. These files are UT2004.ini and User.ini. They both sit in the \UT2004\System\ directory.Now before you do anything with these files, firstly make all the changes you want using the in-game settings as covered in the section above. The changes you make there are recorded in bothof these files. Next, exit UT2004 and make a copy of each .ini file, rename the copies and put themsomewhere safe as a backup.

Note that the default UT2004.ini settings - the settings which ship with UT2004 the first time it's run -are in a file called Default.ini in the same directory as the other two .ini files. Don't delete, rename,move or change the Default.ini file at any point.

Now, having safely backed up these files, you can open them up using Notepad or any other texteditor and begin the tweaking journey. I won't cover any settings which can be changed using thein-game settings screens - you should stick to changing these within the game. I'll only cover thetweaks which are purely accessible through the .ini files, and which can't be changed using the in-game options.

User.ini

[DefaultPlayer]

Name=

This setting holds your online character's name. Whether you use the in-game settings or enter aname here, you're limited to 16 characters maximum being displayed on a server. The only point ofentering/changing it here rather than in-game is that you can paste in special characters here if you

so like.

[Engine.Input]


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All the key commands assigned under the Controls and Speech Binder sections of the in-gamesettings are recorded here. You should change key and taunts in-game. However you can assignspecial key commands in the User.ini file, such as in the example below.

To edit a key function, find the key entry you want to change (e.g. the E= line for the "E" key on yourkeyboard) and insert/edit the code following it to change its function. For example, to assign twoweapons to one key, where pressing the same key will switch between the two weapons, use thefollowing command (example shows the command bound to the "E" key):

E=pipedswitchweapon 5 | pipedswitchweapon 7

This now allows you to switch back and forth between the Link Gun and the Flack Cannon bypressing E. Note the character after the 5 above is the "pipe" symbol, and is usually inserted bypressing the SHIFT key and the \ key. There are other commands you can assign to keys, and arange of taunts.

[Engine.Vehicle]

bVehicleShadows=True

Set this option to False if you want to turn off shadows cast by vehicles, gaining a slightperformance improvement on maps with vehicles.

[Engine.Player]

ConfiguredInternetSpeed=10000

This is a vital setting. It determines your network rate in bits per second. Tweaking this setting canimprove lag problems.

For 56K modems, depending on your connection speed try values between 2400 and 3000 foroptimal ping. As a rule of thumb, try and match your average connection speed (in kbps).

For ADSL/DSL/Cable and faster connections try higher values, ranging from 6000 - 8000. You cantry the default value of 10000 but I find this is just too high to maintain a steady low ping, and use8000.

Remember that depending on the ping of the server you join, where its located, who else is playingand how many others, you may still experience some lag regardless, particularly at the start of eachround, or when lots of people join. Also remember that servers have a cap on this rate, so even ifyou set it very high it may still be limited by the maximum bandwidth the server is set to allocate toeach player.

Something interesting to note is that your frames per second are limited by your netspeed.Netspeeds below 5000 will noticeably cap framerates for those with faster machines. For example, Iget 60 FPS maximum with a netspeed of 5000, but 90 FPS maximum with a netspeed of 8000. Youcan adjust Netspeed "on the fly" using the Netspeed command (see Console Commands sectionbelow) to find which network rate gives you the best ping and framerate on the current server.

[XInterface.GUIController]

bQuietMenu=False

Set this to True if you don't want any sound effects while you're navigating the UT2004 menus. Noperformance impact.


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bNoToolTips=False

Set this to True if you want to disable the small grey description boxes which popup every time yourmouse moves over a setting or option in the UT2004 menus. No performance impact.

[Engine.PlayerInput]

MouseSamplingTime=+0.008333

This setting affects how fast/slowly your mouse moves by taking samples at more/less frequentintervals (in seconds). As this number decreases from the default the more responsive your mousewill seem as samples of your mouse movement are taken at more frequent intervals. Experimentwith this setting if the default sampling time doesn't seem to help your mouse speed.

[UnrealGame.UnrealPawn]

bPlayOwnFootSteps=True

Setting this option to False will turn off the sound of your own footsteps.

[GUI2K4.UT2k4MainPage]

TotalUnlockedCharacters=Malcolm;ClanLord;Xan

There are three special characters which you can only access by completing the single playercampaign. These show up as "?" in the Character Selection screen. However if you want to accessthese characters without completing the game, enter the text shown above next to this setting andthey will become available to you. Oh, and shame on you if you do this ;)

That covers the major User.ini tweaks. While looking around the file you'll notice a lot of commandsthat can be adjusted in-game. Again, I would recommend that you change these in-game where

possible to minimise the possibility of errors and hence problems down the track. Next up, we lookat the UT2004.ini file.

Page 10] Advanced Tweaking (Pt. 2)

UT2004.ini

[URL]

LocalMap=NvidiaLogo.ut2

If you don't like the Nvidia Logo showing up as you load UT2004, and you want to skip the introscreen altogether then replace the NvidiaLogo.ut2 entry with NoIntro.ut2. This will speed up yourloading time. One thing to note is that if you make this change to skip the entry logo your UT2004menu music (which is similar to the original UT99 music) changes to the UT2003 menu music.

If you own an ATI Graphics card, you can replace the Nvidia startup logo with this one. Justdownload the file, and extract the ATILogo.ut2 file to your \UT2004\Maps directory. Then change

the LocalMap=Nvidialogo.ut2 entry to LocalMap=ATILogo.ut2 and you will now see an ATI Radeonlogo greeting you everytime you load up UT2004.

[Engine.Engine]

RenderDevice=D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice


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By default, UT2004 will run using the Direct3D API. This is the best option for most people,however, you may be able to resolve some problems on particular hardware/software combinations- and maybe get more FPS - by running UT2004 in one of the other available modes: OpenGL,D3D9 (D3D DirectX9), or Pixomatic (Software) mode.

To run in another mode, first place a ';' in front of the first line in this section of the .ini file. That

means it should look like this:

;RenderDevice=D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice

Next, go to the relevant line below it, and remove the ';'. For example, if you want to run in OpenGLmode, remove the ';' in front of the OpenGL line so it looks like this:

RenderDevice=OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice

Next time you start UT2004, even though it may not look different, it will be running in this newmode.

Generally speaking, Nvidia cards perform better in OpenGL than in Direct3D, and ATI cards viceversa. On a Radeon 9800 Pro I personally found OpenGL far slower than Direct3D with no visualimprovements. In Pixomatic (software) mode, UT2004 looked terrible and ran incredibly slowly. Thismode would only be suitable for those with high-end CPUs but low-end graphics cards.

The D3D9 (Direct3D DirectX9) mode has been included in the 3204 UT2004 patch, so you can nowuse this mode by using the appropriate line in the section above. Using the D3D9 renderer mayresult in the occasional tiny glitches (it is an experimental renderer after all), but in my testing Ifound the performance and image quality on my Radeon 9800 Pro to be similar to that under thedefault Direct3D mode. If you have a card which is not built around the latest DirectX9 features (i.e.

older Radeons, and GeForce4 and below) then you may see a drop in performance and/orproblems using the D3D9 mode. Experiment for yourself.

[Engine.GameEngine]

CacheSizeMegs=32

This value represents the amount of System RAM set aside for caching game information. Irecommend a Cache size of 64 for most systems with 512MB of RAM or more. Given UT2004'sneed for RAM, I don't suggest increasing this value higher than 64. This tweak will not impact onFPS as such, it is designed to reduce loading pauses in-game, and should be used in conjunctionwith the other tips to do so throughout this guide.

UseSound=True

If you're desperate to improve your framerate, and you don't mind going without any soundwhatsoever, change this setting to False and it might help your struggling system improve. Ofcourse it's not recommended at all, but the option is here if you want it.

[WinDrv.WindowsClient]

Brightness=0.700000Contrast=0.700000Gamma=0.870000

Although they can (and should) all be adjusted in-game, you can fine tune these setting here.


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MinDesiredFrameRate=35.000000

UT2004 will attempt to maintain a framerate approximately equalling this number as a minimum.That is, if your system starts to drop its FPS below this number, perhaps due to the level of detail onthe screen or complexity of textures, UT2004 will do what it can to reduce the less noticeable eye-candy to improve FPS again. The higher this number, the more UT2004 will dynamically adjustdetails and complexity to maintain at least the framerate you indicate in this setting. If you don'twant the game to do that (perhaps you have a fast machine), and want the eye-candy to stay at its

absolute best, lower this number.

MouseYMultiplier=1.000000MouseXMultiplier=1.000000

These settings control how "magnified" your mouse movements are. The MouseYMultiplier settingcontrols your mouse's up and down movements, the MouseXMultiplier setting controls the left andright ones. The larger the number you enter for these, the more exaggerated will be the translationof your physical mouse movements into in-game and in-menu movements on screen. Only changethese settings if you cannot improve your mouse responsiveness with the in-game mouse settings.

[ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem]

CompatibilityMode=False

This option may help people who are having sound problems. Set to True and see if it helps,otherwise leave at the default False for best audio quality.

UsePrecache=True

By default this is set to True, meaning UT2004 will attempt to load all necessary sounds intomemory when loading up a map. However as discussed earlier in this guide, this can increase

loading times and cause freezes and pauses for people with 512MB or less of RAM. Set this toFalse if that is the case, and sounds will be loaded "on the fly", perhaps resulting in more, smaller,loading pauses during game play.

Channels=32

You can set the number of audio channels used for sound/music in UT2004 manually by editing thisnumber. 32 Channels provides excellent quality audio, however a lower number of channels (suchas 16) will improve your overall performance at the cost of audio quality.

AmbientVolume=0.300000

While you can adjust the Effects and Music volumes in-game, and should do so there, this settingallows you to change the ambient sound level (background noises aside from music or charactervoices/taunts). Higher values for this setting will increase the level of the ambient sounds in thegame.

[Engine.DemoRecDriver]

NetServerMaxTickRate=30LanServerMaxTickRate=30

When using the Demorec command (See Console Commands section below), your demos arecapped at 30 FPS. To increase the framerate at which they are recorded, change this setting to ahigher value, e.g. 40 or 60. Note the LanServerMaxTickRate value applies only to demos recordedon LAN connections.


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UT2004.ini Tweaks are continued on the next page

Page 11] Advanced Tweaking (Pt. 3)

UT2004.ini Part 2

[D3DDrv.D3DRenderDevice]

If you're using the default renderer (Direct3D) then changing settings in this area will affect yourgraphics performance. If you're using OpenGL or Pixomatic modes (See the [Engine.Engine]section above to find out how) then ignore this section as tweaks here have no effect on thosemodes, and vice versa.

HighDetailActors=True

Set this to True for a slight performance loss but a slight improvement in Actor (character) details.

SuperHighDetailActors=True

When set to True, this allows the highest quality of detail on the characters in the game. Set this toFalse if you need the performance boost.

UsePrecaching=True

As with Audio precaching and preloading of player skins (See above), when set to True this optionloads graphics textures into memory before you actually see them to reduce in-game jerkinesswhen textures load "on the fly". However if you are experiencing long loading times and longfreezes during games, set this to False and see if you get an improvement. As before, withoutprecaching you may notice more, smaller, loading pauses during game play.

UseTripleBuffering=True

Set this option to True to reduce screen "tearing" (when VSync is off) and improve overall graphicsperformance. Using Triple Buffering may cause problems and glitches for those with older graphicscards, so set to False if youre experiencing problems.

UseHardwareTL=True

If your graphics card has onboard Transform and Lighting (T&L) set this to True. Most recentgraphics cards do feature T&L, so unless you have an older card don't set this to False for bestgraphics performance.

UseHardwareVS=True

Similar to T&L above, this option makes use of the hardware Vertex Shader on modern graphicscards. Most recent graphics cards feature VS. If you have an older card set this to False, otherwiseleave at True for best graphics performance.

UseCubemaps=True

This is a trick used to make some reflective surfaces (like the water puddles in DM-Antalus forexample) look like theyre actually reflecting whats around them in 3D. Turning it off (set to False)can improve graphics performance without any noticeable drop in image quality. If you have a fastersystem, set it to True for best visual quality at the cost of minimal FPS.


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DesiredRefreshRate=60

If you have VSync enabled (See UseVsync setting below for more info) then your refresh rate willbe limited to whatever this setting is. However, to reduce monitor flickering and eyestrain, youshould set this value to the highest refresh rate supported by your monitor at the desired resolution.For example, your monitor may support a maximum refresh rate of 85Hz (85fps) at 1280x1024resolution. This setting is at 60 by default, but you could set it to 85 to make full use of your

monitor's capabilities and ease the strain on your eyes. Again, this setting has no impact if you haveVSync disabled.

UseCompressedLightmaps=True

Using compressed lightmaps can improve your performance quite noticeably, hence it is on bydefault. If you have a monstrously fast system with a large amount of Video RAM (i.e 256MB) andsystem RAM (i.e. 1.5GB or more), set this option to False for the absolute best image quality andslightly quicker loading times, but at the cost of a few FPS.

Use16bitTextures=False

UT2004 can be run in either 16-bit or 32-bit (See In-game Settings section). While you candetermine this in the settings screens, if you choose to run at 16-bit, there's no point in 32-bit qualitytextures being loaded for each game. Set this option to True to use the lower quality 16-bit texturesto match the 16-bit color depth you've chosen. This will improve FPS noticeably at the cost of morevisible color banding on textures.

UseVSync=False

Without going into too much detail, Video Synchronization (VSync) is the synchronization of yourgraphics card and monitors' abilities to redraw the screen a number of times each second. This is

measured in Hz (which is the same as frames per second), and your monitor will have a maximumrating in Hz for each resolution e.g 1280x1024 at 85Hz. When set to False, your FPS will improveslightly, however, you may see some image "tearing" as your monitor and graphics card go slightlyout of synchronization when the refresh rate exceeds the monitor's abilities. Turn off VSync (set toFalse) for best graphics performance, however if the image tearing is annoying then set to True.Setting TripleBuffering to True (See TripleBuffering above) will help reduce any tearing.

Also note that the VSync settings in your graphics control panel may conflict with this setting, somake sure they match what you select for UT2004.

LevelOfAnisotropy=1

This setting controls the amount of Anisotropic Filtering in UT2004. Basically Anisotropic Filteringimproves texture quality, however it comes at the cost of some performance, particularly on oldergraphics cards. Setting this to 0 will improve performance on most machines without a noticeabledrop in image quality. Of course increasing the value will improve image quality at a variable rate ofperformance loss based on your hardware. I recommend leaving this setting at default and usingyour graphics card's control panel to determine the level of Anisotropic Filtering applied to UT2004(as detailed in my Simple Antialiasing and Anisotropic Guide).

AvoidHitches=False

Setting this to True might help reduce the occurrence of substantial hitches (pauses, stuttering) inUT2004, but it can reduce average framerates, so leave this option at default and first try tominimize the loading/freezing issues with the other tweaks mentioned in this guide.

DecompressTextures=False


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Just as with compressed lightmaps, compressed textures reduce image quality slightly, howeverthey improve graphics performance dramatically (especially with Precaching set to True) as moretextures can be loaded into video memory when compressed. Set this option to True only if youhave an extremely fast machine and a graphics card with 256MB of VRAM or more, and you wantthe absolute highest quality of textures showing. Setting this option to True will cripple mostmachines' performance.OverrideDesktopRefreshRate=False

If set to true, this setting will allow you to exceed any refresh rate limitations Windows may haveimposed on UT2004. Set to True just to be safe, but if you already use a refresh rate fix, such asRefresh Force, changing this setting will have no effect.

[D3D9Drv.D3D9RenderDevice][OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice][PixoDrv.PixoRenderDevice]

Tweaking the options under these sections will only have an impact if you're using the Direct3D9,OpenGL or Pixomatic renderers rather than Direct3D (See [Engine.Engine] section above to see

how). The settings under here are essentially the same as those in the Direct3D section above, andsetting them to True or False will have the same impact on performance. I recommend sticking toDirect3D as your renderer, as it gives the best performance and stability with UT2004 on allgraphics cards.

[xInterface.ExtendedConsole]

bSpeechMenuUseMouseWheel=True

By default, the speech menu can be scrolled through using the mouse wheel (if you have one).

However setting this to False will turn off that feature, in case it annoys you.

bSpeechMenuUseLetters=False

By default the speech menu uses numbers to specify taunts/orders. For example, saying"Affirmative" using the Speech menu requires that you press the speech menu key (V by default),then 1, then 1. Setting this line to True will change the numerical menu items to letters, so that inthe above example, you'd have to press V, then W, then W (by default) to say "Affirmative". You canchange which keys are assigned to which items in this section as well. For example,LetterKeys[1]=IK_W shows that the "W" key is assigned in place of the "1" key when the lettermenus option is enabled. Replace the "W" in the "IK_W" with another letter if you wish to change it.

Once again, another long list of tweaks and commands! After you've tweaked your UT2004.ini andUser.ini files, save them and close them before running UT2004. The next section covers theConsole Commands and Adrenalin/Special Moves which can be used in UT2004.

[Page 12] Console Commands & Special Moves

UT2004 Console Commands

To bring up the UT2004 console, press the ~ (tilde) key. To close the console press the ~ key

again. You can type a range of commands in the console to perform tweaks, change settings orlook at information. I have included a full list of console commands below, with a brief description ofwhat each does. Note that many of these commands can be changed using the in-game settingsscreens and also in the .ini files.


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Player / Bot Commands

ADDBOTS [number] - Adds the specified number of botsBEHINDVIEW 1 - Changes to third person viewBEHINDVIEW 0 - Changes to first person viewDISCONNECT - Disconnect from current serverEXIT - Quits the game

KILLBOTS - Gets rid of all botsOPEN [IP address] - Connect to a specific server IPOPEN [mapname] - Opens specified mapQUIT - Quits the gameRECONNECT - Reconnect to the current serverSWITCHLEVEL [mapname] - Switches to the specified levelSWITCHTEAM - Switch your player's teamSUICIDE - Kills yourselfTEAMSAY [text] - Displays your message in team chatPLAYERSONLY - Freezes \ pauses the botsSAY [text] - Displays your message in global chat

SETNAME [playername] - Changes your player name

Statistics

MEMSTAT - Displays Windows memory usageSTAT ALL - Shows all statsSTAT AUDIO - Shows audio statsSTAT FPS - Displays your frames per secondSTAT GAME - Displays game statsSTAT HARDWARE - Shows hardware statsSTAT NET - Shows network game play stats

STAT NONE - Turns off all statsSTAT RENDER - Displays rendering statistics

Demo Commands

DEMOPLAY [demoname] - Plays the specified demoDEMOREC [demoname] - Records a demo using the demoname you typeSTOPDEMO - Stop recording a demo

Admin Commands

ADMIN SWITCHLEVEL [mapname?game=gametype?mutator=mutator] - Changes the current levelto the specified level, game type and mutatorsADMIN [command] - Performs the specified commandADMINLOGIN [password] - Logs the admininstrator onto the server using the specified passwordADMINLOGOUT - Logs the administrator off the serverADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled True - Enables the remote admin webserver (after levelchange)ADMIN SET UWeb.Webserver bEnabled False - Disables the remote admin webserver (after levelchange)KICK [playername] - Kicks the specified player from the server

KICKBAN [playername] - Kicks and bans the specified player from the server using their IP address.To unban the player, edit the server.ini or use the web admin interface

Other Commands

BRIGHTNESS [number] - Changes the brightness level to the specified number


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CDTRACK [number] - Plays the specified CD track numberCONFIGHASH - Displays configuration infoCONTRAST [number] - Changes the contrast level to the specified numberDEBUG CRASH - Test crashes the game with an errorDEBUG EATMEM - Tests memory allocation until fullDEBUG GPF - Test crashes the game with a general protection fault errorDEBUG RECURSE - Test crashes the game by infinite recursionDUMPCACHE - Displays the memory gcache contents

EXEC [filename] - Executes a file in the UT2004/system/ directory by defaultFLUSH - Flushes all caches and relightsFOV [number] - Changes the field of view to the specified numberGAMMA [number] - Changes the gamma level to the specified numberGETCOLORDEPTHS - Displays the maximum color depth supported by your hardwareGETCURRENTCOLORDEPTHS - Displays your current color depthGETCURRENTRES - Displays your current resolutionGETCURRENTTICKRATE - Displays your current tick rateGETMAXTICKRATE - Displays the maximum allowed tick rateMUSICORDER [number] - Change to a certain track in the song (0=ambient, 1=action,2=suspense)

NETSPEED [number] - Sets the net speed, default is 10000OBJ CLASSES - Displays a list of object classesOBJ GARBAGE - Collects and purges objects no longer in useOBJ HASH - Displays object hashing statisticsOBJ LINKERS - Displays a list of active linkersPAUSESOUNDS - Pauses all soundsPREFERENCES - Opens advanced settingsRELAUNCH - Relaunches the engineREPORT - Copies a report of the current game to clipboardSET [class variable value] - Sets a specified class and specified variable with the specified valueSETSENSITIVITY [number] - Sets the mouse sensitivity to the specified number

SETRES [WxHxD] - Sets your screen resolution to the specified width, height, and color depthSLOMO 1 - Sets the speed of the game back to normal real time speedSLOMO 2 - Sets speed to double. Increase number to go fasterSLOMO .5 - Sets speed to half. Decrease number to go slowerSOCKETS - Displays a list of sockets in useTOGGLEFULLSCREEN - Toggles fullscreen modeTYPE [text] - Displays the specified text on the consoleUNPAUSESOUNDS - Un-pauses all sounds

Adrenalin Combos and Special Moves

There are a range of special moves which can be performed by your character under certaincircumstances. Some require that you have 100 Adrenalin. Others, like the Dodging moves requirethat you have the Dodge setting ticked (See In-game Settings section). You can get Adrenalinpoints through various methods:

Picking up a red and white adrenalin pill: 3 pointsA Kill: 2 pointsHeadshots: 5 pointsThe first kill during a round (First Blood): 12 points

Killing sprees: 12 points

Adrenalin Combos:


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Once your Adrenalin reaches 100 points, you will be allowed to perform one of the following specialmoves, the effects of which will only last for a while. The following key combinations need to bepressed in rapid succession to activate the Adrenalin effect:

Speed: Forward, Forward, Forward, ForwardRegeneration: Back, Back, Back, BackInvisibility: Right, Right, Left, LeftBerserk: Forward, Forward, Back, Back

Special Moves:

These can be performed at any time, but require a fair bit of practice and skill to master. Remember,you need to activate the Dodge setting to use the dodge moves.

Double Jump: Jump and then press jump again in the arc of the jump.Dodge: Tap Left, Right, Forward or Back twice quickly.Dodge Jump: Perform a Dodge, and jump just before you lose your air.Wall Jump: Run alongside a wall, Dodge (double tap) into it and as you're about to hit it, quickly

Dodge away from it.Goo Jump: Shoot some goo from the Biorifle, get a shield up using the Shield Gun, jump just whengoo explodes (You can also use the shield gun to bounce energy weapons, break your fall and ofcourse block normal weapons.)Lift Jump: Jump while on a lift to get an extra boost.Death from Above: If you jump from a great height and land on someone you'll cause them damage.

We're fast approaching the conclusion to this guide. The next section covers a few more neat thingsabout UT2004, and wraps the whole show up.

[Page 13] Conclusion

Replacing the UT2004 Loadup Graphic

The UT2004 loadup graphic which starts the moment you run UT2004 is relatively ugly, but can becustomized quickly and easily. Just go to your \UT2004\Help directory and make a backup copy ofthe UT2004Logo.bmp file. You can now replace this with any picture you like, give it the nameUT2004Logo.bmp (make sure it's saved as a bitmap picture though), and it will load instead eachtime you run UT2004. If you're really lazy like me, you can copy the InstallerLogo.bmp file in the

same directory and rename it to UT2004Logo.bmp, giving a smaller, cleaner looking startup logo,and saving 200KB of RAM at the same time!

UT2004 Music

All of the UT2004 music is in Vorbis .Ogg format, and can be found under the \UT2004\Musicdirectory. You can use a free music player like WinAmp to listen to these songs. For more details onhow to extract and convert .Ogg files to other formats, see my Game Music Extraction Guide.

Benchmarking UT2004

As of the 3204 Patch, UT2004 has gained an official built-in benchmark (like the one UT2003 had).To use the benchmark, go to your \UT2004\System\ directory and run the Benchmark.exe file(double-click on it). You will be put through a series of four benchmarks, with results provided at the


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end of the run in a small dialog box. These results are also recorded in various sub-directoriesunder your \UT2004\Benchmark\ directory.

Conclusion

Well after an exhausting 13 pages this guide comes to a close. I know some of you are wondering"Man, couldn't you have cut this thing down a bit?". Well, no, not really. I prefer to give as full adescription as possible for each setting and tweak, giving the reader the information they need to

make their own performance vs image quality choices. I definitely don't want to tell people to simply"turn this off" or "set that to False". I just don't write guides like that.

Anyway, I hope you found this guide useful. There will always be more tweaks and tips discovered,and more changes to UT2004 due to patches and bonus packs. So please keep coming back toTweakGuides.com for details on the impacts of these changes.

If you have any feedback on this guide, or on my new site (and believe me I read all feedback)Email Me. And if you see me online (my nick is PersianImmortal), feel free to say hello.

Credits and Links

I've compiled this guide based on my knowledge of the Unreal Engine, which I've used in the past towrite the original UT2003 Tweak Guide, and my America's Army Tweak Guide . Much of what yousee here has been drawn from those earlier guides.

However in researching UT2004 I have learnt a great deal from various posts, articles and tidbitsfound on the following websites and forums. I urge you to check these sites out if you're a fan ofUT2004:

Official UT2004 WebsiteOfficial UT2004 Forums

PlanetUnrealBeyondUnrealFilePlanet UT2004 SectionBasic UT2004 Tweak GuideStratosGroup UT2004 Strategy Guide

Finally, I want to extend a big thanks to all the great guys and gals on the Overclockers AustraliaForums who have supported my guides, and helped me in starting up my new site.

Until next time, take care!

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